Luke 10:30-36
And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

If you were the injured one, left for dead and unable to help yourself, who would you want to pass by? Would you want the one who ignores? The one who chooses to walk away without intervening? The one who can’t be bothered, though you are desperate and needy? No, we would all want someone to come by and do for us what the Samaritan did for this man. We want compassion. We want help. We want someone to show us mercy and kindness, to be selfless and give what they have so we can benefit in those devastating moments in our lives.

This is a perfect example of how we are to live out the command to love our neighbors. It is not merely a thought in our head or a word on our tongue, but it is in the doing, acting out love in real, tangible ways. If this is what we would desire for ourselves, then let it be how we go out and treat others. We all have that choice every day with the people who surround us. We can demonstrate love. We can minister. We can esteem others better than ourselves. We can be inconvenienced. We can spend time. We can show that we care by meeting the needs of others as we are able.

Surely even the Samaritan was blessed by this experience. It always does us good to do good for others because that is the heart of obedience to God. But just as surely, the priest and the Levite from the story went away unchanged, stuck in their own self-righteousness, perhaps believing in their own hearts that they were good people who loved their neighbors but actually proving that they had no love for their needy neighbor right in front of them. Which example will we follow? Are we truly willing to do unto others as we would have them do unto us? That is the key to loving our neighbors as Jesus commands us to.